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Wyre Piddle Littleburys Directory 1879

Wyre Piddle is a chapelry to Fladbury, from which village it is distant 2 miles N.W., 2 N.E. of Pershore (1 ½ from the railway station), and 9 ½ S.E. of Worcester; is situate on the right bank of the river Avon, in the eastern division of the county and hundred of Middle Oswaldslow; poor-law union, petty sessional division, county court district, and polling district of Pershore; annual rateable value, £1,072; area of the chapelry, 346 acres; population in 1861, 229; in 1871, 252, with 56 inhabited houses and 60 families or separate occupiers. The Right Hon. Lord Northwick (the lord of the manor), Francis William Bentley Wagstaff, Esq., and Martin Howse, Esq., are the principal landowners. The soil chiefly light and sandy; subsoil, gravel and clay; chief crops, wheat, barley, beans, fruit, and vegetables. In the centre of the village is an ancient stone cross. Wyre Piddle church – a chancel, nave, and bell-cot – is well worthy of a visit – so small, so simple, so ancient. Mr. Bloxham and others were of the opinion that its chancel arch was Saxon. The bell-cot and font, too, are probably of the same date, whatever that may really be. It was restored and repewed in 1845. The earliest register is dated 1716. The living is in the diocese and archdeaconry of Worcester and rural deanery of Feckenham; it is a curacy annexed to Fladbury rectory; patron, the Lord Bishop of Worcester; rector, Rev. William Pitcairn Alexander Campbell, M.A., Queen’s College, Cambridge, who was instituted in 1877. The Rev. John Westcott Stoneman, B.A., University of London, is the curate. The national school was erected in 1865 by subscription; average attendance of boys and girls about 50. There is a small chapel for the Wesleyans, built in 1840.

POSTAL REGULATIONS. – Letters are received through Pershore. The wall letter-box is cleared at 6.25 p.m. on week-days only. Pershore is the nearest money-order and telegraph office and post town.